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Architectural Detail Photography Tips
Snarling, sneering gargoyles, fancy stone filigree, rusting iron door knockers. Looking for eye-catching details in architecture can be fun when you're traveling, and capturing them on film can insert a whimsical theme into your photo album. Very often the architectural style of a building is revealed in its smallest details. Elaborate wood fancywork immediately betrays the Victorian period, just as splashy neon-and-glass shapes scream Art Deco. One of the keys to capturing strong images of architectural detailing is tight composition. You must fill the frame to the brim with just your subject so there is no question about what you were photographing. If your subject is nearby, you can often isolate details with a normal lens or moderate telephoto. For more distant subjects a stone griffin peering down from a bell tower, for instance you'll need a long telephoto of around 200 mm. Sometimes you can use a very long lens to compress several repeating details into a pattern .
Pay particular attention to lighting as well. Light coming from the side is ideal because it provides the interplay of shadow and highlight that you need to give your subjects three-dimensional form and surface texture. If color is an important part of the composition (a pattern of mosaic tiles, for example), the soft diffuse light of a hazy day will provide the most saturated hues. The secret to getting good detail shots though is simply becoming aware pausing long enough to notice the myriad parts that make the whole. Cathedrals and palaces are probably the first subjects that come to mind when you're looking for details, but remember even a barn is rife with shapes and patterns when they are dramatized by good lighting and observed by a scrutinizing eye.
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